fixies

[smilingcat]

vehicle code requires brakes on ALL wheels. If it has two wheels both need brakes. Here in California, riding a fixie without a front brake is illegal.

I also think it is irresponsible to ride a fixie without a front brake.

smilingcat

[OakLeaf]

vehicle code requires brakes on ALL wheels. If it has two wheels both need brakes. Here in California, riding a fixie without a front brake is illegal.

I also think it is irresponsible to ride a fixie without a front brake.

smilingcat

I agree that it's irresponsible to ride a fixie on the street without a front brake. BUT... your construction would make bikes with coaster brakes illegal. None of them have front brakes. Are you sure that's the law in California?

I covet a fixie... but I have no idea where I'd ride one.

[smilingcat]

Thats the way it was explained to me. maybe a fixie without a front brake is considered to not have nay brakes. ???

smilingcat

[fatbottomedgurl]

Well because of the fixie craze my 20 year old son asked for a bike. He has been sitting in front of a computer for seven years. I bought him a Fuji road bike on craigslist, we stripped it down, painted it grey, and I built it back up with new grey cables and housing. It is very stealth and pretty hip. He still would like a fixie, but now he is riding (in his tight jeans) every day and wants me to start doing some night rides with him. I am all over that! I never thought I would see him on a bicycle.

[lunacycles]

Waaay back in the day when I was a hard core bike racer, before there was anything hip about it, I converted an old road bike to a fixie. The point of riding one was that it helps, vastly, with helping you learn how to spin and eliminate the "dead spots" in your pedaling. It was a fairly common winter training machine amongst the boulder racing folks I hung with. A fixie is non forgiving: you cannot coast, and wherever you are not exerting effort while pedaling you notice immediately. Riding one for months on end means when you get back on your road bike your legs have the muscle memory that allows you to pedal at a high cadence for a long period with very little fatigue, which is a great benefit when you are racing crits week in and week out.

As long as there is a front brake, there is nothing dangerous about it, unless in a moment of non-mindful pedaling you forget that you cannot coast. Kind of the same surge of adrenalin as when you forget to pedal for a moment (or brake!) on rollers. If you are skilled rider, there is not much dangerous about it at all, even with no brakes, unless you need to stop suddenly. There are tons of big city messengers who ride brakeless fixies, as they know how to.

Also, most fixies and track bikes are very different animals as far as geometry is concerned. A lot of track bikes become fixies for lack of actual track riding, but a fixie can be any bike set up with a non-freewheeling cog in the rear.